Sam Burgess is ready to return to England's squad ahead of their quarter-final clash against Papua New Guinea in Melbourne on Sunday.
Burgess prowled around the contact sessions on Tuesday and dished out some punishment to some unsuspecting team-mates. But the South Sydney forward isn't sheepish about his training style. He's missed the last two weeks with a knee injury and is eager to impress.
"Training is sometimes more intense than a game; I make no apologies for that," he said.
"It's good to back with the team. I'm probably a bit excited. I didn't play 48 hours ago, these guys played and have flown over from Perth.
"I always try and push things a little bit – that's just in my nature. I wanted to get back on the field as quick as possible. I felt pretty good nine to 10 days post injury; I wanted to try and push it and play on the weekend against France."
Halfback Luke Gale is excited to have Burgess in the team.
"He's a big character around the place, and the boys miss him," Gale said.
"He's back now - he hadn't trained for a couple of weeks, so he went full-on in that session then. I think he whacked a couple of boys, which they didn't take too kindly to.
"Sammy trains exactly like he plays. He's intense. He wanted to get back and get himself right mentali-ty. I think that session he showed he was back. He knocked Kev Brown's head off – he's ready."
Burgess says his side will continue refining their game, but it's too late for anything drastic.
"Not a lot really should change," he said.
"We're playing a good style of football. If we start changing things up now, it's too late.
"We know what we have to do - its execution more than anything else.
